The Fault of the Traveller
by RunningWild14
Summary: After Tales from the Borderlands. The Vault of the Traveller leaves Rhys and Fiona with the ability to teleport - although neither of them realise until Fiona magically appears in front of Rhys when she allows herself, for just a moment, to miss him.


Five months. She hadn't seen the idiot in five months.

Yes she knew it was mostly her fault. After Rhys had implied his affection for her when he said he 'liked someone else' – someone else that wasn't her sister, she'd practically run. If anyone asked why she'd disappeared 'vault hunting' for five months with very little contact with anyone other than Sasha, she'd claim she needed to focus. To train. To stay away from any Atlas or Hyperion crap, including the new Mr. Atlas himself – Rhys. Oh, that and she still had every bounty hunter on Pandora out to get her…dead or alive.

After they'd finally managed to close the vault, Fiona had taken off pretty quickly. She found the remains of Felix's old van, fixed it up, and got as far away from Old Haven as she could.

Now she was - god knows where – parked in the middle of Pandoran wasteland on another (probably cold) trail of a secret vault. She climbed onto the roof of the van, mainly to keep an eye out for Skags and Psychos. Fiona couldn't remember the last time she'd allowed herself to sleep, to rest, to have some fun. Now that she thought about it, the last time she'd had fun had been with Rhys, Sasha, Athena, Loader Bot and Gortys…and a poor paralyzed Vaughn (yeah that was probably still her fault). She remembered the games they played, the jokes told, the way Rhys looked at her when he thought she couldn't see him (what was that anyways?) and how he'd been so determined for her to get some rest when she'd spent too long driving.

It was bizarre. The Hyperion stooge and the Pandoran hustler…yeah that was a team that was going to turn _a lot_ of heads. And not necessarily heads that belonged to good people either. They'd become a team in the strangest of circumstances and now that was over she felt as though half of herself had disappeared. And now she was out here, in the middle of a wasteland on this godforsaken planet, allowing herself a moment to _miss_ him. She shook her head in despair.

She glanced up at the stars above, to where Helios used to orbit above Pandora, and wondered what Rhys was doing right now. According to Sasha he'd turned Atlas's secret Old Haven Base into his new headquarters, demolishing the entire abandoned old town to make way for new Atlas employee residences, a bar – even a swimming pool – and several restaurants.

" _Oh my god Fi, you've got to come back and see what he's done to Old Haven – it looks incredible! You honestly wouldn't believe how much he's achieved in five months. Of course some people still hate him but he's practically turning Pandora into…y'know…somewhere that's not so bad to be…"_

Good. She was proud of him. But she couldn't deny the pang in her heart when Sasha reeled off all the great things he was doing. He couldn't even be thinking about her.

She shook her head again. No. That was for the best. If he had meant her when he'd said "someone else" then moving on was the best thing for him. It could never happen. It would never work. They were complete opposites, and they spent the best part of their time together hating each other.

Then why did she miss him so god damn much?

Fiona wondered what he'd done with his office. He'd spent so much time fantasizing about having his own company, and more importantly, his own super executive office that she couldn't help but wonder what it was like.

She rolled her eyes and stood up to climb back down into the van. That was enough keeping watch for tonight. She could see for miles, and there was no chance of any Psychos or Bounty hunters finding her out here. Her arms ached as she pulled herself upright, and she found herself wishing she had metal arms like Rhys so they didn't ache for weeks after every fight she had. She closed her eyes and laughed fondly to herself.

"You Hyperion idiot."

"Uh…Fiona?"

Her eyes shot open as soon as she heard his voice.

Sure enough, there he was, sat at his desk…in his office?

"Rhys! What the hell? How did you do that?" She spun around to take in all of her surroundings. She definitely was no longer out in the middle of wasteland. No, now she was stood in his office in Old Haven. The floor was black and glittered in the light, his desk made of glass, and his computer was top of the range Atlas tech…but how the hell was she now stood here, in front of him, when only seconds ago she was 200 miles away from here.

Rhys stood up and walked towards her "I didn't do anything Fi – one moment, I'm here, approving building plans," he motioned back to his desk "and the next you literally magically appear in front of me like you just…just… teleported or something."

"What? That's impossible, I can't teleport! I haven't got a device or anything."

Suddenly Rhys was reaching towards her face with his flesh hand and brushing her cheek…what…what was he doing?

"Ohmigodfionayoucanteleport."

She just stared at him. "Hm?"

And then he hit her arm "Where the hell did you disappear to and why didn't you call, huh?"

She didn't know what to say. Actually she wasn't sure if she could say anything because the next thing she knew everything was dark and she was falling.

When she finally awoke she was no longer in Rhys' office. Had she teleported again? She sat up, trying her best to ignore the thumping currently going on in her head and noticed the soft duvet that lay on top of her.

"Wow this is literally the most comfortable place I've ever slept."

"Oh, glad you like it." Rhys appeared in the doorway of what she now assumed to be his bedroom and grinned at her.

She instinctively pulled the covers higher, even though she was fully clothed still…minus the hat.

"Hey where's my hat, jackass?" She shot at him.

Rhys laughed and threw his hands up in an _'I'm innocent'_ gesture. "Jeez, you take a girls hat off and she throws abuse at you. Remind me to never take your hat again. Oh and Jack is long gone, no Jackass here." He smirked.

"Why am I in your bed Rhys?" She was tired.

He ran his hands through his hair. "Oh uh, we didn't…if that's what you thought, I wouldn't just…"

God he could be awkward sometimes…scratch that, all the time.

"RHYS."

"Right. Sorry. You teleported…you do remember that part right?"

"Kinda, but its still sort of blurry." She pulled the covers back and sat at the edge of the bed.

"I know you may not know this Fi, cause from what I got out of you last night – which was very little by the way – you have no idea how you came to fabricate in the middle of my office…do you?"

"Uh, not exactly, no. This is as weird for me as it is for you Atlas…if not weirder."

Rhys stepped over to the bed and sat down beside her.

"Have you…y'know…ever done that before?"

"Not that I'm aware of, no."

They both sighed simultaneously, and then side glanced at one another. Rhys was the first to laugh, and Fiona seconds later.

Soon Rhys has stood up again and was opening the door of his wardrobe. He found her hat and threw it back to her. She caught it with one swift movement.

"Well then, we've got some investigating to do."


End file.
